When I was writing "The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars," (see the Prologue
and first four chapters here), I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder.
What better qualification for the man who will head up the mission that
encountered the first intelligent lifeform known to humanity -- and who happened
to be big birds? During the mission out, there was a lot of boring downtime and
one way the crew entertained itself was by telling bird myths, each crewmember
telling tales from his or her own culture. Now, this section will be cut or
drastically emended if I ever get that monster ready for publication, but I did
too much research and had too much fun writing it to let it all disappear, so
what better place to display it than on a blog devoted partially to myth in
literature?
I'm sure there are a lot more African bird myths than these that I discovered in the course of my rather hastily done research, but these are a starter. I'm keeping all the byplay among the crew in this section. I think it's rather amusing and instructive about what the crew is like and what people understand about their world in the 28th century. I think you can see, however, why I'm going to have to cut all this part out of the finished novel (supposing I ever finish it). It simply does nothing to advance the plot.
Note: Capt. Asante Kibwana (aka Kibby) is Capt. Nikalishin's Second in Command for the mission; he hails from Niroba in East Afrik.
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| Hammerhead Stork, in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamerkop |
BIRD MYTHS FROM AFRICA
Emmie Bonnet corralled Jon and
Mosey and they headed off to the Galley to fetch hot gumby and muffins for the
new arrivals, who were soon gorging themselves.
Then Kibby said, “I really should take the Bridge so Wally and Lea can come
down.
“Not until you give us your tales,
Captain,” said Robbie. “You said they
were short.”
“They are; in fact, after this fine
tale we’ve just heard, they may seem a bit anticlimactical. The first isn’t really a story – it’s just a
bit of Afriken folklore about a creature called the Lightning Bird. It’s sometimes equated with the hammerhead
stork … ”
“Oh, yeah!” exclaimed Robbie. “There are all kinds of superstitions about
that bird – harming one of them is supposed to bring bad luck and it’s
considered an ill omen for it to fly over your house. It builds these gigantic nests, and sometimes
people will see a hammerhead fly in and then another animal, often a snake,
comes out, so it’s gotten the reputation of being a shape-shifter, like our
friend Garuda. But in this case it’s only
because other creatures often share a hammerhead’s nest.”
“Aw, Captain, you’re stealing my
thunder!” said Kibby with a grin.
“Well, if it’s real birds we’re
going to talk about, I’m likely to know something! But I don’t know anything about this
Lightning Bird business.”
“A folktale says that lightning is
a magical bird that strikes down from the sky.
You can see where that comes from, considering how herons and storks
strike down lightning-fast into the water with their beaks. It’s said the bird only manifests its
physical form to women; men see nothing but the lightning flash. It’s been said to run up a woman’s hoe and
scratch her body; certainly lightning might produce a phenomenon resembling
that. The bird is said either to enter
the ground at the point of its strike or to leave its egg in the ground. Its fat is the fuel of a lightning strike and
was valued in folk medicine if you can dig it up. Sometimes a shaman might very well have faked
what he or she found at the site of the strike.” Kibby looked apologetic. “You understand, nobody in Afrik believes
this stuff anymore, or at least nobody but the least educated and most
superstitious remnant of the population.”
“Well, nobody in Ind really
believes Garuda is out there flying around either,” said Nani, “but the tales
are a rich part of our culture.”
“And the Mythmakers said, The closest humans can attain to deity is
the symbolism of myth and art,” said Robbie.
Avi Oman added rather gravely, “And
they also said, To achieve understanding
of the unlike is a divine goal. Isn’t
that what we’re doing today?”
A voice came over the
intercom. Lt. Running had arranged
things so the Bridge crew could observe the proceedings. “Cmdr. Smallguard here,” said Wally. “Captain, what’s this hammerheaded stork look
like that would make people think it was the Lightning Bird?”
Robbie explained that the bird’s
crest made its head appear in profile to extend on both sides of its neck, like
a hammer. “If I’d known Capt. Kibwana
was going to talk about it, I’d have brought a picture. I have a bunch of birding vids with me on
this mission – you see how my tastes in entertainment run! I’m daresay there’s a hammerhead in there somewhere.”
Ina Malope spoke up suddenly. “In my part of Afrik we call them ‘hammerchops.’ It’s not because they chop down – it’s from
the language that used to be spoken PDA by the Uropian settlers of Southern
Afrik. ‘Chop’ meant ‘head’ or
something. Isn’t that funny?”
“Um,” said Robbie, thinking that
what he had read was ‘hammerkop,’ but he wasn’t certain enough of that to correct
the Ensign. “I tell you what – if I find
something in my vids, I’ll display it in here for everybody to see. Maybe I’ll put up the shoebill stork,
too. That one has a real primitive look. What’s your second tale, Kibby?”
“It’s from a Shona myth … ” Kibby glanced at Ina, who was looking suddenly
distracted; Mark’s hand was slyly groping about beneath the table. “ … about the Sunbirds, which are probably swallows. Swallows migrate down to that part of Afrik
in the spring, so they are linked with the strengthening of the sun. The tale goes that the Mother-goddess Dzivaguru
was challenged by Nosenga, the son of the sky-god, who was jealous of her
wealth and wanted it for himself. To
combat him, she darkened her valley with fog and took the light away with her,
so that when Nosenga arrived, he found only gloomy darkness. He knew that she brought the sun out by luring
in her pair of Sunbirds, so he devised a magical trap in which to catch them and
so was able to bring back the dawn.
“But Dzivaguru wasn’t so easily
defeated; she found a way to punish Nosenga and coincidentally all of
humankind. She decreed that the land
would become parched; for every bad deed committed by the sons of Nosenga, she
would withhold rain and send drought.
And invaders would come who would overthrow the worship of Nosenga.”
Linna said, “That myth is another in a long
string of pre-scientific explanations of natural phenomena, of why we have
seasons and drought and day and night. One
greedy, fallible god being punished by another, and humans getting caught in
the process.”
“With a moral twist,” added
Avi. “Be good or the goddess will send
drought!”
“Aw, well, I like it anyway,” said
Robbie. “The sun is a pair of golden
swallows – who could object to that? It’s
beautiful! Anything else, Kibby?”
“Well, only that on the continent
of Afrik the stars and constellations are viewed a little differently than in
Uropian-derived cultures. The
constellations have different names. One
of them is called the Flock of Birds. It
stretches from Capella in our constellation Auriga through Castor and Pollux all
the way to Procyon in Canis Minor.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Robbie, “I can
visualize the stars as an endless swarm of quelea birds! Who knew?
I just thought the whole world saw the cosmos the same way!”
“And that’s it for me,” said
Kibby. “Lt. Running and I really had better
go take the Bridge now.”
COMING NEXT:
JEWISH TALES OF THE ZIZ
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